The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1302.1

In the eyes of Evangeline O’Rowane, painting was a way to communicate as well as a hobby to refine herself.

A long time ago, she wanted to be a hero. However, as time passed and she matured, she stopped naively obsessing over the idea like a fool. It felt so foolish and childish to remember how she acted.

Of course, her instinct to act without hesitation whenever an opportunity came up hadn’t changed. She’d grown embarrassed about being blindly obsessed with heroism.

That was when a new obsession found its way to her. She discovered painting!

She didn’t have some grand ambition of becoming the world’s best artist. She simply wanted to be good enough to draw everything she truly wanted to express.

That was what she hoped to achieve.

“Hmmm. The wings are a little off.”

Looking at the scribble that no one could possibly recognize, Evangeline pressed her palm down on one part of the canvas and smeared it with no hesitation.

[???]

[Wings? Which part is supposed to be the wings?]

To the viewers, it was just a messy mix of paint and graphite with no clear form.

[I honestly have no idea what the boss is even drawing right now.]

[Sure, there are MeTubers who draw like that, but I’ve never seen anyone pull off this kind of detail from a mess like this.]

There were plenty of geniuses in the world. Among them were a few who painted in strange and fascinating ways, like Evangeline.

However, her work felt subtly different.

“I’ll do this here... and this here. There! Now that’s looking better.”

Her drawing streams usually alternated between her tablet and canvas, but she made it clear that she wanted to draw everything by hand this time. It was the best way to execute the quirky idea to draw a dragon that fit her taste.

“There! That’s the rough sketch done.”

[My Eyes are Burning just donated 5,000 Won.]

- This is my first time catching a stream. Am I the one with messed-up eyes? That just looks like a doodle, not a rough sketch.

“Ahaha, thank you for the donation. But a doodle? Come on, this is a rough sketch. This part’s the wings, and this is the body.”

[Whoa, newbie, don’t try to understand. Boss’s drawings are beyond comprehension.]

[Is this what a dragonfolk sketch looks like???]

While confusion spread among the viewers, Evangeline picked up her brush and announced she’d begin the actual painting.

“Alright. Time to really get to work. You all must’ve been bored waiting, eh?”

Despite her words, there wasn’t really any reason for viewers to be bored. Thanks to her surprisingly good sense for streaming, she rarely had any dead air. It was hard to believe she was still a beginner.

[Huh?]

Once Evangeline began sketching and adding color properly over the base layer, surprised reactions started popping up in the chat.

Using the same white paint as the canvas along with an eraser, she gently erased some areas and painted over others.

The mess that looked like meaningless scribbles slowly started to transform as the composition of the painting revealed itself.

There was a dragon seated inside a grand temple. Like Evangeline, it had two horns and a pair of double wings.

“Hmmm. This part goes here. Mm, perfect.” As she mumbled to herself, fully immersed in her work, the chat began to light up

[???]

[What the heck. Why’s it looking so real?]

[Has she always drawn like this?]

[We asked for a painting and she gave us magic.]

[Wait, so those clips I saw on MeTube weren’t edited?]

New viewers couldn’t hide their confusion. Meanwhile, longtime fans of the stream felt a strange sense of pride.

[That’s our boss!]

[Her dragon art is the best in the world!!]

[Damn lol. Every time I watch, I’m just blown away. Normally I get tired of watching drawing streams, but she’s different. I never get bored.]

The painting gradually neared completion. Her work delivered an unbelievable sense of realism, almost impossible to grasp that it came from just paint and graphite.

A dragon with snowy white scales had taken form on the canvas. However, its appearance was slightly different from the dragons people usually imagined.

“This part needs to be just like this. I never got it before, but now I do.”

Roughly ten minutes after she picked up her brush, she added a black dot for the pupil, completing the drawing with remarkable speed.

“And with that, we’re done. Wow! I know I drew it, but this is seriously cute...”

Cute? Where exactly?

Someone in the chat should’ve chimed in with how they couldn’t understand her taste in dragons. Yet, surprisingly, the chat remained quiet.

“Hmm? What’s going on?” She was expecting her viewers to get all hyped up about her work like usual. Evangeline’s head tilted at the oddly quiet chat. “Hello? Can you all hear me?

[We hear you... we hear you, boss.]

[But now that I look at it... this dragon kinda looks like you... like your true form...]

“What? Why’s everyone acting weird? I finished it. Should I post this one on my channel and forum too?”

[Please do, streamer!]

[This one’s seriously awesome!!]

“Something’s off... Your reactions are kinda...”

The sudden shift in atmosphere felt strange.

With a puzzled expression, she looked back and forth between the chat and the drawing, then took a photo of it and put the canvas away.

She casually conjured water, washed her hands, and smiled brightly. “Alright then. That’s it for today’s stream.”

* * *

In the past, there was a saying: “The final touch to the dragon's painting.”

It came from an old tale where an artist painting a dragon added the eyes last, and the moment he did, the dragon came to life and soared into the sky.

Of course, it was known as an exaggerated story, but they referenced that tale when a painting was done exceptionally well, or held something beyond that. It could blur the line between reality and illusion.

Why bring up such a topic now? It was because one of the clones of Killer Rabbit, who had returned to watching over Evangeline, had just reported something about her channel.

Davey had only stepped away briefly before the continental meeting, but it was enough time for chaos to erupt.

“She said she was painting, right? What the hell did she do?”

Normally, the viewers would be sharing funny stories or chatting about her stream. Instead, both her forum and her main channel had completely derailed. Hardly anyone was talking about Evangeline herself.

[I’m not some dragon lover, you maniacs...]

[I’ve lived my whole life and never thought a reptile could look this good. Seriously...]

[Try it, just try it...]

[How... how did I end up like this...]

“I’ve seen all kinds of freaks in my time, but this... this is a problem.”

If it were some random streamer, it might’ve been easier to ignore. The fact that it was Evangeline’s channel made it worse.

She might’ve looked like a teenager on the outside, but in reality, she was the same age as Darian. Knowing that, even the most unhinged viewers usually held back when it came to certain topics.

However, the forums were pure chaos.

“I’ve seen horse girls, car boys, and even pony bros. Well those are just broad terms. This isn’t that.”

He didn’t know exactly what had happened, but he had a good guess.

After barging into Evangeline’s lair, Davey saw the dragon painting she had stored away. He nodded instantly once he saw it. “Enchantment?”

“Huh? Dad? When did you get here?” Evangeline rubbed her eyes as she stepped out of her room in her shark-print pajamas, surprised to see him in her lair.

“Oh, that painting! What do you think? Pretty good, right?”

“Yeah,” Davey agreed. “You did too good of a job.”

The dragon painting was more special than anything she had drawn before. It had something that irresistibly pulled people in.

“You drew it too well, and you put something in it that shouldn’t have been there.”

It made sense why the forums and her stream had ended up like that. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

“Eva,” he called.

“Yes?”

“Your viewers, and anyone who saw that painting, seem to have fallen into a collective state of enchantment.”

If it had been just a human drawing their affection, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad. Instead, it had to be a dragon, of all things?

Apparently, Evangeline still hadn’t realized that her stream had become a major controversy all over the internet.

“Even if we burn it, I don’t know if it’ll help.”

Davey wasn’t sure what to do with an enchantment that had already taken hold. If he were cruel, he could just say the painting had permanently altered the preferences of countless people and drop the matter entirely. However, that would leave too many victims.

“Eva, take that painting down from your channel. Now.”

“What? N-no! But I worked really hard on it!”

“Exactly. You drew it too well. That’s the problem.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Evangeline looked bitterly at her white dragon painting.

“I can't be sure whether it’s too well drawn or there’s something else to it. Regardless, that painting pushed people into a mass enchantment.”

“But... I really just drew according to my preference.”

For the first time, Davey seriously considered whether he needed to take her brushes away.

Evangeline stared longingly at the painting, then reluctantly removed it. Tears welled in her eyes.

She used a protective cloth to wrap the canvas and wore a somber expression.